


The Vanishing Cloak

by MystExplorer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Arts, Gen, Meditation, Metaphysics, Nudity, Room of Requirement, Slytherin, Slytherin Common Room, Slytherins Being Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26186662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MystExplorer/pseuds/MystExplorer
Summary: In a time when the Battle of Hogwarts is but a distant memory, two Slytherins decide to play around with some dark magic.





	The Vanishing Cloak

**Author's Note:**

> While I am still a Harry Potter fan, I strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling's views on transpeople. Trans women are women, trans men are men and they deserve the same rights as everyone else.

There it was. The definitive book on the Dark Arts. Miranda was not sure how she had managed to work up the courage to smuggle it out of the library’s restricted section but now that she had it, she could not wait to practice some of the dark magic contained within.

“It’s mine!” she said gleefully. “All mine! At last!”

“I can’t imagine anyone more deserving,” said her best friend Graham. “You’ll work wonders with this book, Miranda. No question about it.”

The two of them were seated in the Slytherin Common Room. It was late and the only other person around was Derrick, whom they considered something of an oddball. Fortunately, he seemed far too absorbed in his reading to care about their conversation.

“It’s got every Dark spell, charm and potion known to Wizardkind,” Miranda said, flipping through the book. “Far more than they’ll ever teach us in Defense Against the Dark Arts aka the most useless class anyone’s ever taken.”

“Sure is,” Graham said. “Why defend yourself against the Dark Arts when you can try them out instead? They’ve got it all wrong.”

“So you’ve stolen a book from the restricted section, have you?” Graham and Miranda looked up from the book to see Derrick standing nearby with a smirk on his face. “Tut tut. I would have thought your parents might have raised you better.”

“You stay out of this!” Miranda said fiercely. “This doesn’t concern you, ok?”

“I know,” Derrick replied. “Your secret is safe with me. I’ve never been a tattletale and I don’t plan to start now. Anyway, I’m off to bed.”

“Getting up early so you can catch the train?” Graham asked.

“No. I’m staying for the holidays. I hate my family and they hate me. The more time I can spend away from them, the better.”

“So why not stay up a little longer?”

Derrick hesitated. “I’m… just tired, that’s all. Goodnight.” With that, he trudged up the stairs to the boys’ dormitory.

Graham shrugged and said, “Weirdo.”

“You know something,” Miranda said. “Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to steal the book right before the holidays. I mean, I can’t take it home with me. Mum would kill me if she caught me with it. And I can’t just hide it under my bed here either. Jenny’s staying for the holidays too and she’s the nosy type. What if she finds it?”

“You could just return it to the restricted section for the time being.”

“Are you kidding me? Stealing it once was risky enough. I’m not going to try it a second time.”

“Good point. It looks like you need a really good hiding place. And I think I may have one for you.”

“Really? Where?”

“I’ll show you. Follow me.”

Graham got up and walked towards the door of the common room. Miranda followed. Soon they found themselves roaming the dimly lit halls of Hogwarts. It was well after curfew but they could not care less so long as they avoided getting caught. At first it seemed like Graham knew where he was going but then he became confused and began leading Miranda in different directions.

“You do know the way, right?” she asked.

“I do. But it’s been awhile so please bear with me.” After going in circles several times, Graham finally said, “Here it is!” and pointed to a tapestry depicting Barnabas the Barmy.

“You want me to hide the book behind that?”

“No! Watch.” Graham approached the wall opposite the tapestry and walked past it three times. Moments later, a door materialized in the wall.

“What’s through there?”

Graham just smiled and stepped through the door, beckoning Miranda to follow him. She did so and found herself in a gigantic room filled with piles upon piles of miscellaneous objects. “Welcome to the Room of Requirement!” Graham announced. “Or in this case, the Room of Hidden Things”.

“What is this place?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. A room that provides you with whatever you require. If you require a place to hide something, the room looks like this.”

“So it changes depending on what you need?”

“Exactly. I discovered it in my first year. Turns out not many people know about it. There are rumours that it was nearly destroyed during the Battle of Hogwarts and it somehow managed to rebuild itself. Lucky for us, of course.”

“Wow! I guess I should hide the book somewhere that’s easy to remember. But where?” They spent a few minutes scouring the room until Miranda noticed a green cloak lying on the floor. “I think I’ll put it next to this cloak.” She did so and then frowned. “Why would anyone just throw a cloak on the floor where it’ll get dirty?” She picked it up. “Makes more sense to hang it on something.” She noticed an old wooden chair nearby and threw the cloak over it. Much to her surprise, the cloak immediately crumpled to the floor but there was no sound of broken wood. Puzzled, Miranda grabbed the cloak and discovered that the chair had disappeared.

“Ah!” Graham said excitedly. “That must be a Vanishing Cloak!”

“I’ve never heard of those. Are they like Vanishing Cabinets?”

“Kind of. Except whatever goes into a Vanishing Cabinet always reappears somewhere else. With a Vanishing Cloak, things just… disappear. Very dark magic. There’s probably something in that book about them.”

“No wonder someone felt the need to hide it. Too dangerous to keep around.”

“I see you found the Room of Requirement,” said a voice. “Good for you!”

Graham and Miranda spun around to see Derrick hiding behind one of the junk piles. Only his head was visible.

“What are you doing here?!” Miranda said pointedly.

“Oh, I just decided to go for a nighttime stroll to my favourite hiding spot.”

“But how did you get here before we did?” Graham asked.

“Because I know my way around the castle much better than you do.”

“Ok, fair enough. So, why are you hiding?”

“I like to meditate sometimes. And this is the only part of the castle where I can do that undisturbed. Or so I thought.”

“Yes, well, meditation is for Muggles,” Miranda said dismissively.

“So you won’t be joining me then?”

“No!”

“Suit yourself. You probably wouldn’t approve of my meditation attire, anyway.”

“What are you on about?”

Derrick grinned and stepped out from behind the junk pile, revealing himself to be stark naked.

“Oh, I see,” Graham said sheepishly. “Why the… lack of clothes?”

“It helps me to concentrate. No clothes means no distractions.”

“Yeah sure,” Miranda said, unimpressed. “Nothing to distract you from your incredibly beautiful body.”

“That’s another way of putting it, I suppose.”

“And where are your clothes?”

“Over here,” Derrick said and pointed to some Slytherin robes on the floor.

Miranda wasted no time in throwing the cloak over them. As soon as she picked it up again, the robes had vanished.

“Ha!” she said triumphantly. “Now you’ll have to walk all the way back to the common room totally starkers!”

“I don’t mind,” Derrick said nonchalantly. “Those robes were rather itchy.”

“Well then, would you mind if I did this?”

Before Graham could stop her, Miranda through the cloak over Derrick and it once again fell to the floor.

“Er, Miranda,” Graham said nervously. “I really wish you hadn’t done that.”

“I don’t care! Serves him right for being so stuck-up!”

“Maybe but sooner or later, people will notice he’s missing. What will we do then?”

Miranda thought for a moment.

“This is the Room of Requirement, right? It gives us what we need?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Maybe all we need to do is require Derrick to reappear.”

“I’m not sure if that’ll work but I guess it’s worth a try.”

Graham and Miranda closed their eyes and focused on the task of bringing Derrick back. They knew it was not what they wanted but it was what they needed to stay out of trouble. After a while, they opened their eyes to find Derrick standing there once again, still completely nude but utterly perplexed.

“That was… quite an experience,” Derrick said slowly.

“What happened to you?” Graham asked.

“It’s a bit hard to describe. I felt like I was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I couldn’t really see or hear anything but I was fully conscious. It felt rather peaceful, to be honest.”

“Sounds like you discovered what it means to not exist,” Miranda said.

“Exactly! I’ve spent years meditating but now I know that true peace can only be achieved through a state of non-existence! Thank you, Miranda! Now then, where’s that cloak?”

Derrick looked around frantically until he found the cloak and threw it over himself. The cloak fell into itself and Derrick was gone again.

“Well, if he’s happy, then we should probably wait awhile before bringing him back,” Graham suggested.

“Ok,” Miranda replied. “Maybe after the holidays. After all, how many people can say they’ve had a holiday from existence?”

They made their way back to the Slytherin Common Room only to find Jenny waiting for them.

“Where were you?” she asked. “I couldn’t sleep so I came down to see if you were still in here. I’ve been worried sick!”

“We were… returning books to the library,” Miranda blurted out. “They were overdue.”

“At this time of night?!”

“We just remembered we still had them and wanted to take care of it before we left for the holidays.”

“Fine. I’m going back to bed.”

“One more thing,” Graham said. “Derrick has decided to go home for the holidays so don’t be surprised if you don’t see him around.”

Jenny looked at them quizzically. “Who?”

“Derrick. The one who sits next to you in transfiguration.”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about. Now let me get some sleep.” Jenny ran upstairs.

Graham and Miranda looked at each other cautiously.

“That Vanishing Cloak works really well, doesn’t it?” Miranda said.

“Apparently so. It erased Derrick and people’s memories of him,” Graham replied.

“Except ours. Probably because we were right there when it happened. You think we’ll be able to bring him back again?”

“We could but we’d be bringing him back to a family he hates. Maybe he’s better off not existing.”

“All this existential talk is making my head hurt. I need to sleep.”

“Me too. See you in the morning.”

Graham and Miranda both slept soundly. The next day, they boarded the Hogwarts Express together. As they sat in their compartment, they tried to recall the events of the previous night.

“We… hid that book in the Room of Requirement, didn’t we?” Miranda asked.

Graham nodded.

“Was someone else with us?”

“No,” Graham said. “We’d remember if there was.”

“Of course. Silly me.”


End file.
